I know full well that these days people don’t own speakers as much as they used to.

In point of fact, none of my own kids have ever owned speakers.

I’m not talking about speakers on your 3 in one compact shelf stereo that you played CD’s on, or your bullet speaker that you plug your I-Pod into, or your Bluetooth Jambox speaker. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not cutting on these, they all server their purpose, but I am talking about real speakers. Component stereo speakers. Big, solid, heavy, beasts of sound burden. Woofers, midrange and tweeters all in one giant hulk of a usually wooden cabinet.

I have had the same pair since my mom purchased them for our stereo back in the Ann Arbor days. They were big. They were heavy, they were awesome. I used them until we moved to the house I live in now where a more space economical pair was purchased, but the old beasts are still around and they still kick ass.

Today, portable music and headphones are at the top of the want lists, not 35 pound anchors to make the music. That’s the culture, and I don’t dispute it. I just wonder if those with no speakers know what they are missing.

At any rate, I brought in Dalton’s speakers that he had given me from his storage shed. They are even BIGGER than the aforementioned big speakers that I still have from back in the day.

The KLH speakers looked as though they were stored in a non-temperature controlled shed for years. They are just SO what I used to look for in a speaker, when he asked if I wanted them, I couldn’t say no. He had yet another pair in there that he wanted more since they were smaller. Those were the ones I help load into his father’s car.

So I brought these in today and decided to clean them up before I stored them myself.

The fabric grill was stained and there were chips all over the place. Also the edges were worn away in some spots. However, behind the grill, though dust covered, everything was in great shape.

I was unable to figure out what kind of speaker these were beyond KLH. The tag in the back that would give the model number and other info was removed at some point for some reason. So I can guess, but will never know for sure. Not that it matters.

I put one up on the table and gave it a quick wash down with some soapy water and then got to work fixing all the chipped edges with my precision detail tool, alias… a Sharpie. Hey, it worked.

The individual speakers themselves got a very delicate and gentle dusting out. Then I tackled the grills, one of which had a large (moldy?) spot. That took a lot of scrubbing with a toothbrush to clear up.

In the end, they looked almost brand new. I took one over and set it next to my current speaker to give you some perspective on how much different they are. It’s comical.

Then of course… I had to try them out. I plugged them both in and then went to select a record from Dalton’s collection that I thought he would be pleased with. I selected Judas Priest’s “Sad Wings Of Destiny” as the tester album.

I didn’t have it that loud, but I was pleased with the sound. It was well worth cleaning them up. These will be man cave speakers one day. I’m adding rubber pads to the bottom of each before I store them. Should help the chipped bottom corners from getting worse.

They cleaned up nice.

Viva Speakers !